Roy Cooper wins North Carolina Senate seat with 67 percent of vote

Roy Cooper won the open U.S. Senate seat for North Carolina on Tuesday night. The Associated Press called the race for the former governor, who became the first Democrat elected to the body from the state since 2008. Cooper defeated Michael Whatley, the former Republican National Committee chairman.

Early returns placed Cooper at approximately 67 percent of the vote as of 8:30 p.m. Whatley had not led in polling at any point during the campaign. Cooper's lead widened as the race progressed. The outcome ended a contest that observers initially predicted would be one of the most competitive and expensive in the nation.

Total advertising spending in the race reached about $90 million, according to AdImpact data. This figure fell well short of the hundreds of millions some experts had projected. National Democratic groups outspent their Republican counterparts throughout the cycle. In the weeks before the election, national GOP organizations pulled television ads from North Carolina. They redirected those funds to other battleground states, including Kansas.

Cooper, who served as governor from 2017 to 2024, campaigned on affordability. He promoted his state tour as the "Make Stuff Cost Less tour." Whatley focused his message on crime and immigration. He criticized Cooper for a legal settlement during the pandemic that released inmates from state prisons to reduce overcrowding. Polls indicated that the economy was the primary concern for voters this year, rather than crime.

Cooper's campaign portrayed Whatley as a lobbyist for big oil who would serve as a rubber stamp for President Trump in the Senate. Whatley ran for elected office for the first time in this race. Patrick Sebastian, a Republican strategist who was not part of the Whatley campaign, said his party should have focused more on the economy. He argued that voters care most about the economy and government corruption.

"Really, it's the economy is Issue A and then Issue B is probably government corruption, that people are following the most," Sebastian said in a pre-election interview with the WUNC Politics Podcast. He noted that shoppers at stores like Walmart can buy less with the same amount of money due to rising prices.

President Trump and Vice President Vance held multiple rallies in North Carolina during the final weeks of the campaign. Pro-Whatley television ads largely disappeared in October. Sebastian said the visits likely boosted Republican turnout but were not enough to change the result. At one rally, Trump suggested Whatley might lose, stating that Cooper is "going to become your senator and it's crazy." Retiring Sen. Thom Tillis did not campaign for Whatley. Tillis announced his retirement in 2025 after Trump threatened a primary challenge. Tillis has since promoted a new book criticizing fellow Republicans.